During deployments, do you stay put?

[tangleballlover]

or do you move back in with family or closer to family?

[Melbornj]

I have only stayed at home during one of his underways.  We have been at a sea duty now for 6 years and he is usually gone for about 8 months of each year so I go on an extended vacation as I call it.  The closest family that we have is about 2,000 miles away so when I go I always say I am going to make it worth it.  We do own our home but nothing is going to happen to it while it is sitting empty.  My neighbors have our phone number in case they need to get ahold of me.  Usually I stop in Il and visit my inlaws for a month or so.  Then I make it to Fl where I visit my family for up to 3 months.  I stay with my Mother who I have no problem with staying with long term.  The kids each have their own bedroom while we are there and they love it.  Then I go and visit my brother that is stationed in Nc and then I head back to Fl and then back to Il and then head back to Wa.  Usually I fly but this time I am driving and I am currently in FL.  It is the only time that the grandparents get to see our little ones so I try to take advantage of that, they already miss out on alot.  With that all in mind my kids are not school age yet and when they are we will stay put because I would never take them out of school.  His deployments are 5 months at the longest so there would be no sense in pulling them out of school putting them in a new one and then yanking them right out.  So when we make it back to sea duty and he goes out to sea we will stay put.